Businesses, Economic Development and US Cities in the 20th Century

        Businesses, Economic Development and US Cities in the 20th Century

Julie Ann Racino

2018

Excerpted From: Racino, Julie Ann. (2003). Utica Monday Nite: Arts, Culture, Nature and History at the City Level. Rome, NY: Community and Policy Studies. 

Businesses and Economic Development (pp. 28-29)

        Utica Monday Nite was intimately involved in the rejuvenation and revitalization of the downtown business district of the city of Utica. In the 1990s, a central theme in cities and quality of life was the approach to downtown business districts in cities as diverse as Denver, Colorado, Minneapolis, Minnesota, Portland, Oregon, Reston, Virginia, Rockville, Maryland, and Forth Worth, Texas (e.g., cultural attractions, centers of display, waterfronts, historic districts). The theory behind Utica Monday Nite included its anticipated positive community and economic impact on Utica and the downtown district and businesses in the area, since it reportedly attracts thousands weekly to its events. Utica Monday Nite featured the city parks, and was a vivid portrayal of parks for arts and culture, for history and environment, and for ethnicity and immigration.

General Accounting Office. (1997, August). Economic development activities: Overview of eight federal programs. Washington, DC: Author.

Gratz, R.B. (1989). The living city: How urban residents are revitalizing America's neighborhoods and downtown shopping districts by thinking small in a big way. NY, NY: Simon and Schuster. 

Grondoma, M. (2000). A cultural typology of economic development. In: L.E. Harrison & S. P. Huntington, Culture matters. (pp. 45-55). NY, NY: Basic Books, Perseus Group. 

Moe, R. & Wilkie, C. (1997). Reinventing downtown. Changing places: Rebuilding in an age of urban sprawl. NY, NY: Henry Holt and Co. 

Novatrov, E. & Crompton, J. (2001). Reformulating the conceptualization of marketing in the context of public leisure services. Leisure Studies, 20, 61-75.

Pryde, P. (1998, June). Tax strategies for community and economic development. Washington, DC: Finance Project. 

Sachs, J. (2000). Notes on a new sociology of economic development. In: L.E. Harrison & S.P. Huntington, Culture matters. (pp. 29-43). NY, NY: Basic Books, Perseus Group. 

Urban Habitat & PolicyLink. (2000, December). Communities gaining access to capital: Social equity criteria and implementation recommendations for the Community Capital Initiative (CCII). San Francisco, CA: and NY, NY: Authors. 

Wheeler, E.T. (1993). Government that works: Innovations in state and local governments. Jefferson, NC and London, Great Britain: McFarland & Co., Inc. 

Cities Around the World (pp. 29-30)

  Cities themselves are the subject of research and study (e.g., Bahr & Caplow, 1991, Qualitative research), and are considered to be core structures in American (and worldwide) community and economic life (Clinton, Gore & Cuomo, 2000). In the 1980s and 1990s, the crises of the hearts of cities and central urban areas were prominent in the literatures (e.g., homelessness, "urban flight"). In addition, patterns of segregation and migration in cities and suburbs remained central area of academic research (e.g., Massey, Gross, & Shibuya, 1994; Carr & Kutty, 2008). These literatures (See, instead, Humphreys & Haroutunian, 2004, immigration) do not necessarily address the other crises which face war torn countries such as Bosnia, with proposed plans to divide provinces, town and cities setting the stage for new Belfasts or Berlins in the world. Also, the major literatures often reflect the major cities (e.g., Los Angeles in the US), with small to mid-size cities such as Utica not as prominently described in the worldwide changes occurring in the past decades.

Human Services and Disability

    The field of disability (e.g., Drum, Krahn & Bersani, 2009), which has a high government presence, has not always been integral to the study of cities (e.g., low-income-based). However, "middle class and low income" programs, agencies, city services and even housing in the USA may be located in downtown cities (e.g., United Way of Syracuse, New York, 1980). In cities such as Utica, NY (rural upstate), human service agencies are also involved with housing preservation (See, Paul Carling, 1995) as are new immigrant communities. In Syracuse, NY, the new clubhouse programs (e.g., Mowbray, et al, 1997) were located in "housing preservation buildings" in a district which included voluntary and state management offices (See, also Racino & O'Connor, 1994).

      As an example, Rome, New York, has on its reopened (post mall development, history of the city, 2016) main downtown street (a two block area) a mental health service agency, an alcohol and substance abuse agency, a day care center operated by a major disability agency, a social security office, an  employment office, a neighborhood center, the city's United Way agency and an in-city housing development (See, urban segregation and the welfare state, 1998). Later developments, post historic buildings, are retail shops, the restoration of the Capitol Theater (located near Rome City Hall), relocation of BOCES and Department of Social Services, and "changing in the banking structures", among others.

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Carling, P. (1995). Return to community: Building support systems for people with psychiatric disabilities.  NY, NY: Guilford.

Carr, J.H. & Kutty, N.K. (2008).  Segregation: The rising costs for America.  NY, NY and London: Routledge.

Clinton, B. & Gore, A. (1992). Cities: Putting people first: How we can change America. (pp. 52-62). NY, NY: Times Books, Random House, Inc. 

Clinton, B., Gore, A., & Cuomo, A. (2000). The state of the cities 2000: Fourth annual report. Washington, DC: US Department of Housing and Urban Development. 

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Drum, C., Krahn, G., & Bersani, H. (2009). Public health and disability. Washington, DC: American Public Health Association and American Association on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities. 

Golubic, S., Campbell, S., & Golubic, T. (1993). How not to divide the indivisible. In: R. Ali & L. Lifschultz (Eds.), Why Bosnia? Writings on the Balkan War. (pp. 209-232). Stony Creek, CT: The Pamphleteer's Press.

Humphreys, N.A. & Haroutunian, L. (2004). Armenian refugees and displaced persons and the birth of Armenian social work. In: D. Drachman & A. Paulino (Eds.), Immigrants and social work: thinking beyond the borders of the United States.  (pp.31-48). London: The Haworth Press.

Mowbray, C.T., Moxley, D.P., Jasper, C.A., & Howell, L.L. (1997). Consumers as providers in psychiatric rehabilitation. Columbia, MD: International Association of Psychosocial Rehabilitation Services. 

Moor, J.H. & Warah, R. (2002, January). The state of the world's cities. Global Outlook (International Urban Research Monitor), 1, 5-7. 

Musterd, S. & Ostendorf, W. (1998). Urban segregation and the welfare state: Inequality and exclusion in Western cities. London: Routledge. 

Orum, A. & Feagin, J. (1991). Tale of two cities. In: J.R. Feagin, A.M. Orum, & G.S. Sjoberg, A case for the case study. (pp. 120-192). Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina.

Racino, J. & O'Connor, S. (1994). "A home of our own": Homes, neighborhoods and personal connections.  In: M.F. Hayden & B. Abery (Eds.), Challenges for a service system in transition. Baltimore, MD: Paul H. Brookes.

Sale, K. (1980). Humanscale. NY, NY: Coward, McCann, & Geoghegan. 

In 2018, Andrew Cuomo is Governor of New York, Vice President Al Gore made the case for the environment (now Sustainable and Inclusive Cities), and Hillary Clinton ran an "unsuccessful bid" for US President in 2016 with support of "husband" Bill Clinton and "daughter Chelsea". 

On the war front, Afghanistan (and neighbor Pakistan) and Iraq have created new veterans in America (following the Vietnam Veterans), and America is now embroiled in new "conflicts" in Iran, Syria and Ukraine (See, United Nations web television). 

And, inequality divided America into two halves, increasingly distant from each other, while political elites decried the top 1%.  Urban areas remain as priority for "review" in the context of sprawl in metropolitan cities in the South, new gated communities, and shifting population regions in the United States.

New economic development (Cuomo in New York, 2012-2018) following the "bubbles" (e.g., housing), "rerated financial products" (e.g., bond ratings),  and "financial collapse on Wall Street" (i.e., banking industries) involve inclusive development in the global arena (e.g.,World Bank).

We thank John Zogby (a notable pollster) for his insights into Utica, New York, and for Humanscale (cities around 50,000 people), and were delighted to be colleagues at Syracuse University in the 1980s with our "case study"  colleagues at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (families and children). 

And thank you to the Democratic leadership (Clinton, Gore and Cuomo) for tackling the cities and their futures, subsequent to Madison Mutual Housing Association (Racino, 1993), research study which was funded through US Education, National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research.